Smart Shopper: How to Purchase a Mattress

Mattress shopping is just one of those dreaded jobs, like buying a vehicle, that may leave the consumer feeling dejected, defeated and deceived. The language is confounding, and comparisons may be bewildering. To top it off, the client sometimes has to haggle to seal the deal.

“It is hard for the user,” acknowledges Eric Thompson, the proprietor of Bedroom & More, a San Francisco mattress dealership. And yet it’s a task that needs to be performed frequently — as often as every six decades.

Listed below are a few tips to help you navigate the maze of mattress shopping. Hopefully, you’ll come out to the other side relaxed, relieved and sleeping like a baby.

Hotel Collection

How often should you replace your mattress? When your old mattress leaves you feeling exhausted or tired, it’s time to replace it. The Better Sleep Council recommends trading on your mattress every five to seven decades. While it’s not surprising to see this proposal coming out of a trade group, others support this theory, both for relaxation and for health reasons. (Mattresses collect dead skin cells and sweat as time passes, which may attract dust mites and pose health risks.)

If you get an excellent mattress with a coil count over 900 and keep it clean, Thompson says you can stretch that life expectancy to 10 or 15 decades. To prolong the life of any mattress, he advocates buying a waterproof, breathable mattress cover, that will help protect the surface from moisture and skin tissues. (They begin at less than $25.)

Size matters. If you sleep solo, any size will do. Unless you are tall, in which case you’ll want to go with a queen or king. If you sleep with somebody else, you’ll also feel much more comfortable with a queen or king.

Average mattress sizes:
Dual: 38 by 75 inchesFull or double: 53 by 75 inchesQueen: 60 by 80 inchesKing: 76 by 80 inchesCalifornia king: 72 by 84 inchesFirmness. Pros no longer subscribe to this theory that a firm mattress is best for you, so go with what feels comfortable.

If you are over age 40, then that might be a softer mattress than you have used before, because skin becomes more sensitive to stress as we get older. Firmness designations vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, so gauge a mattress by how it feels, not by what it’s called.

Foothills Amish Furniture

Mattress types. The fantastic ol’ innerspring mattress is no longer the only game in town. Now you have a bewildering collection of mattress alternatives to choose from, such as memory foam, latex, gel, inflatables and all natural — just to mention a few.
Innerspring has become the most popular option and the cheapest; it features tempered steel coils wrapped in layers of cushioning. Memory Foam (conforms to the shape of the body, so when you move, the remaining portion of the bed does not shake (great for all those bothered by a restless spouse). Gel mattresses combine memory foam with a cooling, so the body does not get so hot during sleep. Latex mattresses blend characteristics of the innerspring and memory foam to deliver excellent comfort at a top price. Indoor atmosphere mattresses possess an abysmal core which you may adapt to the desired firmness. All-natural beds commerce engineered materials for organic alternatives like cotton, wool and rubber.More about shopping for a Pure mattress

Amoroso Design

Hit the stores. Research mattresses, check for brand ratings and hit on the mattress stores. Remember while dealing with innerspring mattresses that a mattress will have a different name and insure from 1 shop to the next, although the item may be indistinguishable. This is a longstanding tradition in the mattress world, and it makes it quite hard for customers to compare products and prices from store to store. Fight it, and it’ll drive you nuts.

Rather, attempt to settle a merchant you prefer, and compare the merchandise in that showroom. Or narrow the field down to both or three favorite mattresses, and choose the model with the very best price.

Testing the mattress. Do not get a mattress without testing it in the shop. Dress in comfortable clothes (pants) and wear shoes that are easy to slip away. If you sleep with somebody else, bring your spouse with you. If you are bashful about lying on a mattress in public, get it over. You are likely to devote a third of your life with this sucker, so it’s worth a couple of minutes of humiliation.

Gauge your initial reaction to every mattress. If you prefer it, then spend time lying on every side, your stomach and your spine, giving additional time to the place you normally sleep in. It isn’t unreasonable to spend 10 or 15 minutes onto a mattress you are seriously interested in. Do not be scared to ask the salesperson to leave you while you are testing a mattress, so that you may focus on the relaxation.

“Do not let anyone push you into a sale,” says Thompson. “Listen to your body. And look closely at the coil count.”

Coil count. A fantastic way to compare 1 mattress with another is by checking the coil count. Normally, the higher the coil count, the better the support. (That’s not the exact same thing as firmness.)

There are 3 standard types of coils: pocketed, hourglass and continuous. Pocketed coils are individually wrapped in a tiny bag, hourglass have a round top and bottom, and continuous are created from sinuous interconnected wire ringlets. The normal mattress contains anywhere from 250 to 1,000 coils. Obviously, bigger mattresses will have more coils compared to smaller ones. If you are looking around for a queen-size mattress, start looking for no less than 600 sinuous coils or 900 pocketed coils.

Mattress manufacturers may compensate for a low coil count by using a thicker wire. Cable thickness is measured in gauge, with a lower number representing a coil.

Pricing. The price is generally negotiable, especially for innerspring mattresses. Make sure you haggle (unless the merchant clearly says that costs are company) and don’t be tricked by the size of the discount that the salesperson offers — it’s the bottom price that’s most significant, Thompson says. If you enjoy a $1,200 mattress at shop A, and shop B is willing to sell you a comparable $3,000 mattress for 50 percent off, you are still paying $300 more for shop B’s mattress. Do not fall for it.

Before buying, ask regarding return policies, restocking charges, delivery charges and whether the shop will dispose of your old mattress. These variables could influence your final price.

Do not assume that a no-haggle merchant is a more expensive seller. Big chain stores might slash costs or sell to negotiate, but they often begin from an inflated markup, and the negotiated price might be no better — or even greater — than the no-haggle price at stores such as Macy’s or Nordstrom. “If I did not have a mattress shop,” Thompson says, “that’s where I would go.”

Browse mattresses in the Shop

More
How to Purchase a Sofa
How to Purchase a Sleep Sofa
How to Buy a Sectional

See related